Red Hen Press brought 250 custom-made chocolate bars to the AWP conference this year, promoting books on their list with a tasty treat. They didn’t bring any leftovers home (photo of Rodney Wittwer‘s Gone & Gone chocolate bar embedded above).
As authors and publishers struggle to attract attention in bookstores, conferences and events, the strategy might be useful. We caught up with marketing associate William Goldstein to find out more. He explained:
Red Hen has been making chocolate bars for AWP for 10 years now. The idea behind it is that chocolate makes people stop and look. People pick up a bar, marvel that it looks just like the book, and then pick up the book. Authors especially seem to appreciate it, often seemingly more than their actual books!
(Photo credit: Emily Stone)